Indy to Daytona to Monaco

2 entries from February 2014

February 18, 2014

Here is Indy car and Formula 1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi at speed in the gorgeous Penske PC23 chassis powered by the Mercedes-Benz 500I engine at the Indianaolis Motor Speedway in May 1994. It was Fittipaldi who gave the engine its nickname: The Beast.(Photo by Dan Boyd)

In case you missed the unveiling of my latest book, you can read it by scrolling to the post below, or click here.

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BEAST is the story of the last great innovation at the Indianapolis 500. Although it received immense worldwide coverage at the time, the real behind-the-scenes stories have never been told. I have wanted to share this amazing tale for more than 15 years, and to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 1994 Indianapolis 500, I knew the time was right to tell the definitive story.

While BEAST may appear to be about an engine, it's really about the handful of people from Ilmor Engineering and Team Penske who made it happen, the hurdles they overcame and the incredible (and often hilarious) lengths they went to try to win the Greatest Spectacle in Racing. There are technical elements in the book, mostly describing how the engine itself was different than the "normal" Indy engines and how they overcame a number of hurdles with immense problem solving abilities, but the focus is on the drama and uncertainty that drove them all the way to the final laps of the race.

It's about the perfect intersection of elements: rule changes and political wrangling in the sport of Indy car racing, a motivated team owner with the desire and finances to make it happen, the engineering firm with people capable of designing and building the engine in record time, and the race team itself with three world-class drivers. Had any of those pieces not been in place, this would have never happened.

Why me?

How was I lucky enough to be the one to tell the story? I was an Ilmor Engineering employee in the late 1990s, when Ilmor was the racing engine design and manufacturing arm of Mercedes-Benz. While I was at the '94 500 purely as a fan, it was several years later that I became a part of the Ilmor team. The stories I heard while at team dinners or after a few (or more) beers from those who played a key role with the engine fascinated me and fueled my imagination. As a marketing/communications guy who is not an engineer, designer or mechanic, the stories of this behemoth seemed almost too good to be true. But, the more I learned, the more I understood how it came together.

I don't want to pretend I'm the only one who could have written the book, but I did have a unique background that put me in the right position. Because I was a former employee with a decent track record as an author, the book got an early "thumbs-up" from Ilmor co-founder Mario Illien and Roger Penske. From there, I had access to former and current employees of both companies and many others in the sport at that time. I traveled across the US and also spent time in England researching and doing dozens of interviews with the key players. Even the greatest minds and memories can get a little fuzzy over the course of two decades, but I was able to match many anecdotes and details with documents which had remained packed away since that time. What emerged from those interviews was a story even more grand than I had imagined.

The main goal was to tell the story accurately and to do justice to the effort put in by everyone who participated in creating and racing The Beast. Because of the extreme secrecy of the engine project, I was shocked to learn that many key players still have no idea what their co-workers in other departments were doing - even those working beside them. Now, they can learn with the rest of us!

One major element of the book is missing. Paul Morgan, co-founder of Ilmor, was killed in a plane crash in May 2001. He was the heart and soul of the project and I had long feared the story had died with him. But, with so many people eager to share their many Paul Morgan stories, his memory is a thread that carries through the entire book.

If I've done my job properly, readers will enjoy a great mystery/suspense novel and will understand how unique and special the engine project really was.

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You can pre-order BEAST directly from Octane Press before its April release. Click here for more information. The book will be available in hardcover and all eBook formats.

February 14, 2014

It will hit the streets in mid-May, and is being published by Octane Press of Austin, Texas, the company which also published my previous book, "In The Red." It will be available in hardcover and all eBook formats. (The hardcover release will follow several weeks later in the U.K.) You can pre-order the book directly from Octane Press at: https://www.octanepress.com/book/beast

This is the largest and most complex project I've ever taken on, and I'm very proud of the finished results. It is the best work I've done in my eclectic career, and I hope you will enjoy it half as much as I have.

BEAST is the never-before-told story of the greatest secret in Indy 500 history. It tells of the epic effort to design and build a new engine from a clean sheet of paper for one race - the 1994 Indianapolis 500 - in a nearly impossible timeframe and in total secrecy. It was designed and built by Ilmor Engineering Ltd. in the U.K., and then tested and raced by Marlboro Team Penske, Roger Penske's ultra-successful Indy car team.

The 1,000 horsepower engine was unveiled several weeks before practice began at the Speedway in 1994, and has been called "the atomic bomb" of auto racing. This was truly the last, great innovation at the 500, and could never happen again in this era of spec cars and spec engines.

While many others have written and speculated about the engine, this is the first time a true insider (ahem... me) is able to tell the stories no one else has revealed, as 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the race. Because the engine was one-and-done before it was legislated out of existence, many legends, myths and tall-tales grew up around it, but the truths revealed in the book are even more grand than the myths. While I thought I knew the stories when this project began, it seemed I was shocked or surprised with each interview or batch of documents.

Roger Penske is always looking for what he calls the "Unfair Advantage," and this engine provided him with such. It came about after engine rules at the 500 were relaxed in an attempt to help American manufacturers and independent engine builders ("the little guys") have some hope of competing with the dominant engines from Ford-Cosworth and Ilmor (previously badged as Chevrolet engines). Penske and Ilmor cofounders Mario Illien and Paul Morgan decided that a specially built powerplant could be designed and built (at great effort and expense) to the exact specifications of the relaxed rules. But, they only had precious months to do so.

While die hard fans will know details of the engine - known to the world as the Mercedes-Benz 500I - and the results from its one and only race, the book is presented as a mystery/suspense novel that doesn't reveal the results until the final chapters. I hope to bring the reader along day-by-day as the pressure, tension and gut-wrenching drama increases all the way to the final laps of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

This is much more than a racing book: it tells the stories of those who worked around the clock on two continents to create the powerful work of art. Their massive brain power, subterfuge and sleight of hand belongs in a spy novel rather than a sports book. Their decisions and methods could fill a business or leadership book.

The story winds through amazing moments including World War II fighter planes, software hacking, frozen winter testing, a secret garage named "the Taj Mahal," the death of a great Formula 1 world champion and even supersonic jets. This all was taking place amidst the political turmoil that was roiling as Tony George, president of the Speedway, announced his intention to start his own Indy car series. And all of that takes place before they even reached the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where the real speed and drama take hold.

Only three drivers were ever able to feel the full power of the engine, and it was named "The Beast" by the legendary Emerson Fittipaldi after his first test session. Fittipaldi was joined on the Team Penske roster by Paul Tracy and Al Unser Jr. The latter duo did most of the track testing under extremely brutal conditions leading up to the race.